Implosion of 204

The Implosion of 204

I’ve never had a course quite like this one. I haven’t given a single test or quiz the entire semester, and the students have had great difficulty, with but three semesters’ preparation, reading Преступление и наказание. And I have spent a lot of time preparing for class, much more than ever for an intermediate class. Perhaps that’s what’s wrong — I have read so deeply in Dostoevsky that... what?

I had great difficulty, too, when I read Пр. & н. for the first time, and in those days I didn’t have my edition lying around to help me. I say to you that any student in 204 willing to spend 2-3 hours of work each class period would be gaining a reading knowledge, with my aids, and, with active work on exercises and composition, she/he would be advancing her/his Russian superbly and they would feel good about it.

Especially valuable is the recorded text of the novel, which I have made available to everyone. I would be glad to give you individual help on taking apart the Dostoevsky text for grammatical purposes. We will try to do more of this in class.
You could make an exhaustive study of how participles and gerunds are used in literary narrative. For as long as you read Russian, you’re going to find them, and in my edition every last gerund and participle is translated and explained.

This, plus the inestimable intrinsic value, as they say, of the literature itself.
Many of you, or some, have worked, in spurts, like this, and done some excellent compositions with original ideas expressed cogently in Russian. And everyone has worked, at some time, or tried to, in good conscience. One or two people have taken the time to talk this over with me, which I appreciate. I know some of you, or many of you (многие из вас; this doesn’t mean absolutely many, but ‘many’ in the group of you) are disappointed to find that her Russian is not getting any better.

I feel like the Zen master who tells his apprenctices to sweep the floor and take out the garbage for a year, and come back in five years. I wonder, how does he feel, in fact?

I’m no Zen master, so I’ve no right to tell you to take out the garbage.
But it’s not over yet; maybe you will still learn some Russian!
gmc